In this unprecedented era of profound uncertainty, moving towards the 21st century, we face multifarious challenges. Collective intelligence is crucial for addressing the complex issues—from existential threats to climate change and geopolitical tensions. Political unrest and wars have renewed fears of catastrophic nuclear conflicts globally. The ongoing global pandemic continues to ravage communities. We are in an age where human impact on the planet is driving dangerous disruptions, proposed as a new geological epoch.
We are facing an unprecedented era of profound uncertainty as we are moving towards the nascent epoch of 21st century. There are multitude of challenges ahead of us full of multifarious complexities intertwined together. These challenges are encompassing a range of salient issues from the threat of existence to the threat of climate change to the ungovernable geopolitical tensions that continue to build below the surface. Lately, political tensions and wars have sparked renewed fears, anxieties and apprehensions about possible catastrophic nuclear wars amongst countries globally. The global pandemic is continuing to ravage our global communities. We are living in the age, where humans’ impact on the planet is so stark that it is driving dangerous disruptions to our planet – earth—which has been formally proposed as a new geological epoch
These uncertainties have affected us deeply and there is growing uneasiness and unfair inequalities that are negatively affecting the path of human development. Despite remarkable technological progress and record achievements in average standards of living and incomes, people are more apprehensive about the future than ever before. We have seen how the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to the health impacts, also devastated economies and reversed progress in gender equality. The war in Ukraine compounded to the issues leading to global food insecurity crisis.
We did make progress on sustainable development goals but those gains are gradually deteriorating due to growing inequalities, homelessness, ever increasing poverty, distressed society with bad mental health, food shortages and insecurities, lack of availability of clean water etc. It is shocking to note that over 90% of countries have witnessed a decline in their HDI value during either 2020 or 2021. This means that there has been erosion of the progress that we after adoption of UNSDGs and the Paris Agreement. This is really disheartening and raises questions about how our future will look like.
Technological advancements are focused towards achieving decarbonisation goals helping us to transition away from fossil fuels towards more cost effective renewable energy sources. Currently, 66% of the world’s electricity is generated using fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, oil etc. It is projected that by 2040 we will be using electricity generated through more renewable sources such as solar, wind or bio fuels. But we all know that the future is always uncertain and every new technology, new advancement comes with its own set of challenges and repercussions. For example, bio fuels were originally regarded as a great replacement for fossil fuels, these now face a number of problems of their own, including negative effects on land usage, a role in deforestation, and harm to biodiversity.
Even though these obstacles appear to be difficult to overcome, these should not deter us to keep taking actions and moving forward. We have to be determined to become more resilient and adaptable. This means that we should be able to manage unforeseen risks and adjust ourselves to changes while retaining our core values, roles and sense of self-being. External influences are beyond our control. But we can control our own actions. By adapting to climate change, lowering our carbon footprint, and making wiser decisions every day, we can work towards increasing our resilience. Keeping ourselves informed with current events is crucial. It is also important to connect and collaborate with people who share similar concerns. By meeting people who are in similar situations we can discover a sense of belongingness and form a community to take discussions and actions forward. Learning about trends in innovations, being more aware of situations and advances in different geographies can help us a lot. This can ignite us on to take initiatives and move towards a better future for all of us. By pooling resources and expertise, we can work together to develop and implement solutions that are more efficient, effective, and sustainable. Thus, collective intelligence and collaboration is the key.
Collective intelligence promotes accountability by encouraging individuals and groups to take responsibility for their actions and to work together to achieve common goals. Keeping the benefits of collective intelligence and collaborations in mind, we at CorpStage have conceptualised the theme of our annual event – ESG World Summit & GRIT Awards (https://event.esgconsultingservice.com) as ” Enabling Collective Intelligence Through Smart Collaborations”.
Even though we are unsure of what the future may bring, by banding together and acting now, we can improve the planet for both current and future generations.